The Eataly Effect Is Felt on West 23rd Street

December 13, 2010

Much as Keith McNally may have inspired landlords in the vicinity of Pulino’s to raise their rents, Eataly seems to be giving their West 23rd Street counterparts a few ideas.

Crain’s reports that since the Italian food megalith’s opening in August, rents within a block or two have increased 15 percent. Its success has also inspired other restaurateurs to make fat-ass footprints on the neighborhood: Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen will open a 4,800-square-foot restaurant at 1 Madison Avenue, where it will be joined by a 3,600-square-foot wine bar called Gustavo America.

All of which inspires a sort of weird nostalgia for the days when the length of the Shake Shack line was more or less the only thing to make gastronerds obsess about the neighborhood — and which was, of course, a big part of why people are swarming 23rd Street for fresh mozzarella today.